


Lionheart

by bette (ferns)



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Cisco Ramon Becomes Vibe, Cisco hates himself a lil but he gets some self esteem don't worry, Episode: s02e06 Enter Zoom, Kidnapping, M/M, Mentioned Barry Allen/Iris West - Freeform, Mentioned Patty Spivot/Barry Allen, Multi, a lot of these characters are background since this is cisco-centric, a surprisingly low amount of torture tbh, cause he's a badass, ily penn, some barriscowest if you squint, some torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-01
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-08-18 22:01:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8177650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferns/pseuds/bette
Summary: Cisco takes a break from helping Caitlin keep Barry alive to reflect on the abject hopelessness of the entire situation.
At least it can't get any worse, right? Right.
He's wrong.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pennflinn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pennflinn/gifts).



> Here ya go Penn, I hope you like it <3

There’s blood on Cisco’s fingers, sticky and wet and coppery. He _should_ wash it off, he _should_ go back to helping Caitlin, he _should_ be making sure that Iris and Joe are okay, he _should-_ there’s a lot of things he should be doing. But he can’t go back into that room, not right now, he can’t look at Barry lying on that hospital bed, still and pale and _broken._

He swallows down bile as he remembers Zoom’s clawed hands, snapping with blue lightening, slicing their way into Barry’s skin. Tries not to think about how he didn’t even have to vibrate his hands, he just had to _stab_ with his gloves-were they even gloves? Cisco’s stomach knots as he wonders if that’s really what that _monster’s_ hands look like under the gloves. Taloned and sharp and oh-so-deadly, built for _killing._

The Reverse-Flash may have been terrifying, but at least you could see him coming, yellow and red instead of electric blue on black. Like a coral snake instead of a black mamba.

Cisco runs a hand through his hair, pressing his fingers into the back of his neck and trying to take deep breaths. Okay. Okay. At least they knew that the serum worked on Zoom, right? That was a plus. A positive side to this whole thing. Sure, maybe it _had_ only worked on him for about two seconds, but at least it had worked. Think positive. Be positive.

It was so hard to be positive when Barry was lying still on a hospital bed, when Caitlin had lost him twice and barely managed to get him back the second time, when your _best friend_ was _dying,_ when someone had just tried to kill your-

No. Bad Cisco. Bad thinking. You weren’t supposed to want to kiss your best friends (although Ronnie’s eyes had been pretty cute when they scrunched up because he was confused and sometimes Caitlin was just so excited about something, but they’d all three looked down that road a few times and decided not to-especially after the particle accelerator explosion and Ronnie’s ‘death’), you weren’t supposed to want to hug your friends from behind and slid a hand under their shirt and kiss the back of their neck and-no.

Those were bad thoughts. Those were the thoughts that Barry was _never_ supposed to find out about, because he was in love with Patty and Iris (and who _wouldn’t_ be in love with Iris?) and the future said so. The future said Iris West-Allen, and that meant that Cisco didn’t stand a chance. In the movies, the hero always fell in love with their childhood best friend, the next door neighbor, the beautiful girl. And Iris was every single one of those things.

Besides, even in the stories where the hero fell in love with the other friend, the nerdy sidekick who cracked jokes and helped to take down the big bad, it was never someone like him, never the Latino boy who wanted to save people but was too scared (coward coward coward you should have known that this would happen why didn’t you see _you call yourself a hero?_ ) to use his powers to do it.

Cisco tells his brain to shut up and let him think about something else other than how much of an abject failure he is for once in his goddamn life. Think about how to stop Zoom, think about saving Jesse, think about figuring out his powers and using them to track Zoom down, think about _anything_ other than Barry lying on the hospital bed, nasal cannula helping him breathe because he can’t on his own.

(And don’t think about what Caitlin said, about what the hastily done x-ray told them, don’t think about the nerve damage and what Zoom did to the musculature and don’t think about the lacerations and don’t think about Caitlin pulling him aside during an oh-so-brief moment and hugging him close, whispering with tears in her eyes that she’s not sure Barry’s going to come out okay from this, _don’t think about it-)_

He digs his knuckles into his forehead. “This,” he says out loud, hating the way his voice cracks, hating how helpless he feels, what kind of _honorable destiny_ is this, “really fucking sucks.”

Tears prickle behind Cisco’s eyes. He just feels so hopeless, so scared, so all-around awful, and he knows that he _shouldn’t_ feel this way, he shouldn’t feel this way because Barry isn’t dead _(yet,_ the snide little voice at the back of his mind reminds him, _he isn’t dead yet)_ and Zoom is gone for the time being. They have time to figure out a way to fix this.

But Zoom is _fast,_ so much faster than Cisco thought was possible. He could be there in, well, a flash, taking anybody away that he wanted. Dropping them off of a building or snapping their neck or vibrating a hand into their heart or-

Zoom could kill any of them. And not just them; if he did his research, played his cards right, he could get their _families,_ he could grab Dante right out of his room or kill his Mama and Papí before they could blink. (Cisco remembered cracking the spine of a dusty photo album while cleaning out the attic for a yard sale, fingers brushing over unfamiliar relatives and old neighbors and landing on-) And, fuck, did he know about Iris? If he knew about Linda then he had to know about Iris, too.

Cisco jumps up before he can process what he’s doing, heading back to the medbay. The faster he got there, the faster he could help, the faster Barry would wake up, and the faster they could take down Zoom. Together. Together. All of them together, the way it _used_ to be. That would be good, if it went back to the way it used to be-

_Slow down, dude, you’re getting ahead of yourself,_ Cisco thinks as he stops and rubs his temples with his fingers. “Caitlin?” He says, taking a step forward and looking down at the floor (he couldn’t stand to see Barry back in that bed). “Is there anything else I can do? I’m sorry for bailing, I just needed to take a quick break-”

The world blurs around his ears and it sounds like everything is underwater. For a moment Cisco thinks he’s back in a vibe, and for a moment he hopes it was _all_ a vibe even if it was missing that tell-tale hint of surreality and bluish hue. That Barry never got hurt and Linda didn’t almost die and they still have some hope left. Maybe they’ll have it back tomorrow, Cisco doesn’t know. All he knows is that one moment he’s standing at the doorway to the medbay, reading to help again…

And the next he’s gone, clawed hands wrapped around his waist and yanking him along like he doesn’t weigh anymore than a kitten.

Cisco’s been carried at superspeed before, of course-it’s been getting easier, and he always loved roller coasters as a little kid and would drag Dante on them, babbling about the structural integrity of the coaster and whether or not it was likely to break. Getting moved at high speeds is an old feeling.

But it’s never been like this. It’s never been this _fast,_ for one thing, and it’s never felt this dangerous. He’s been rather wary around speedsters since he started remembering his death at the hands of Not-Really-Wells in the old timeline, but Barry’s been helping him get over that and now that Jay is here Cisco has been feeling safer by the minute.

Until now, anyways. Now he can’t even scream in surprise or horror or fear or in the hope that someone might hear him and stop him and save him, the sound ripped right out of his throat before he can make it. He wonders if Zoom is going to kill him, if he’s going to drop him off of a building and let whoever finds him take care of the body. Frame it as a suicide, maybe, and wouldn’t that be a twist from one of Caitlin’s favorite novels, the romance-wrapped-in-intrigue.

Cisco wonders when he got so casual about death. He can’t quite pinpoint when it started.

And then it _stops,_ skidding to a halt as abruptly as it began, and Zoom throws him down on the floor, standing over him tall and imposing. It’s too dark wherever they are to make out the real details of the black suit, but Cisco wants to be sick because that looks like _his_ handiwork, and he doesn’t want to imagine what would make him-or more rather an alternate him-build a suit for someone as evil as Zoom.

Something at the back of Cisco’s mind niggles that he knows those shoulders, those hips, but that’s impossible (is it? Could they have met Zoom’s doppelganger and not even known it at the time?), so he pushes the thought away.

Rage sweeps over him as minutes pass with Zoom doing nothing, just looking him up and down like he’s a butterfly on a pinboard. This bastard hurt Barry, hurt his Barry Allen, almost _killed_ him, and Cisco can’t just do nothing. He’s not some damsel in distress waiting to be saved.

He tries to swing a punch at the monster’s masked face, but before he can actually make contact something cracks against his jaw so hard it whites out his vision and a girl’s voice screams _“No!”_ so loud it’s practically in his ear. He stumbles backwards, clasping his face in his hands and letting out a tiny gasp of pain, swallowing back a larger cry.

“Leave him alone!” Someone-Jesse?-spits, and Cisco sinks down to his knees in pain. It’s so loud, everything is loud and bad and he _doesn’t know what to do,_ is this a side effect of some kind of his powers? “What are you doing to him?!”

Cisco doesn’t have to look up to know that Zoom is sneering down at him behind that eerie black mask. “Just taking a little bit of revenge,” he hisses. “You’re not as useful to me as my own Francisco, _Vibe,_ but you’ll do.” Something hooks itself in Cisco’s hair, lifting him to his feet. Cisco tries to spit, but instead a glob of blood just dribbles down his chin and splatters onto the floor. “I wouldn’t be so defiant. I accomplished what nobody else on your weak Earth has ever done. _I killed the Flash.”_

Another blow to the side of the head, and everything goes dark before Cisco has a chance to scream.

* * *

The next few days are a blur in Cisco’s head. The only things that stand out are the sharp pangs of hunger, the bouts of crying from frustration and anger and grief (Barry isn’t dead Barry isn’t dead Barry can’t be dead not his Barry, Caitlin promised, she promised, she promised not to let him die), and Jesse, who has tried every way of getting out of the cells and hasn’t succeeded since her capture. That’s how Cisco knows he’s screwed; Harry wasn’t exaggerating how smart Jesse was, judging by the things she’s described as a part of her escape attempts, and if she can’t get out by doing _that…_

He tries anyways, of course he does. Cisco’s not content to just sit there and rot, drinking the rainwater and what might be snowmelt that collects in a tin cup that their captor left for him. Jesse tells him that sometimes he goes for a week without bringing her food, but it should happen within the next few days if he’s lucky enough. And if Zoom’s in a forgiving enough mood.

(There’s also the man in the mask. Cisco doesn’t like to think about him-he’s not even convinced he’s real, and he’s super creepy.)

Zoom himself stops by every now and then, not saying a word most of the time and opting just to stare at them no matter how much the two of them yell at him. Zoom only made his move on the third day (or at least what Cisco _thinks_ is the third day) once Cisco had exhausted his repertoire of creative swears in both English and Spanish. He’d moved onto insults as well as cheering on Jesse’s own efforts while trying not to collapse from exhaustion. Cisco’s personal favorite has to be “you edgelord sparkplug fucker”.

That might have even been the one to set him off, who knew, but whatever it is it makes Zoom _pissed._ He vibrates right through the cell wall, causing Cisco to automatically curl in on himself to protect his chest. But instead Zoom just grabs his shoulder in one clawed hand, sending crackles of blue electricity snapping down into Cisco’s skin. It hurts, it hurts so bad, and Cisco _snaps._

Something bursts out of his skin, slamming into the reinforced glass walls of his cell and shattering them easily while sending Zoom tumbling away into a pillar. Cisco drops down to his knees, head swimming as power flickers below his skin. Blood dribbles out of his nose, he can feel it on his lip-but he can also feel _so many other things,_ he can feel the press of a mask on his face and gauntlets on his hands, he can feel scalpels slicing into his skin, he can feel wings bursting out of his back, he can feel lips on his, he can feel wind in his hair-

Cisco can feel _everything._ Every single emotion that had ever been felt. It was powerful, it was awe-inspiring, it was beautiful. It was the most amazing thing that Cisco had ever experienced in his entire life, and somehow he knew that that was true of every single person back home. That _they_ would _never_ feel this way. It was exhilarating.

And it was killing him.

The ground beneath Cisco’s feet lurches as _whatever that was_ snaps off like a faucet feeding into him, like he’s just been unplugged from a power outlet and now he’s at 100% battery. He knows it’s cliché, but he feels like he could take on a hundred metahumans and come out on top. Whatever just happened, whatever he just did…

“What the hell just happened?” Jesse whispers in a tiny voice from where she’s chained, staring down at Zoom’s prone body, stretched out on the floor. “Did you kill him?”

The man in the iron mask knocks out a tempo that might be a little hopeful from his cell. Cisco swallows thickly. “I don’t know,” he whispers. “I don’t know what happened and-” He’s suddenly aware of Zoom’s heartbeat, of everyone’s heartbeat, of the thumping that’s sounding in his own ears. “He’s alive. I gotta-holy shit, I gotta-”

He lunges for Jesse, body responding as if on muscle memory, clamping his hands down around the chains. “What are you-” Jesse’s voice dies as Cisco’s hands _hum_ and the chain itself breaks cleanly, and Cisco moves onto the other hand. “How are you doing that?”

“I don’t know,” Cisco admits, flexing his fingers as he turns around to face the box that holds the man in the iron mask. “But I think I’m getting the hang of-whatever this is. You just point and shoot- _fuck!”_

A blast fires from his palm, a translucent cone that was reminiscent of the sonic scream that Cisco had designed the Canary Cry to make. It immediately shatters the glass that holds the man captive, and Cisco rushes to undo his chains. “C’mon,” he says urgently, hauling the man to his feet as soon as the chains were gone. “I’ll get that mask off of you later, buddy, we gotta move _now,_ before Zoom wakes up!”

“Were are we going?” Jesse asks, and Cisco’s so, so grateful that she doesn’t try to argue with him, so grateful that she doesn’t try to act like she knows more than he does about this. And, really, while he has no idea what he’s doing and is flying by the seat of his pants, at least there’s some sort of internal compass telling him were to go. What to do.

For some reason, that compass looks like a constantly-shifting version of him, but at least they’re getting out of there even if Cisco has no idea what the fuck just happened. He swallows and faces the wall and follows the internal instructions of the compass, which currently looks like an eighteen-year-old with a mask and a vest and a bloody nose.

“Home. My home. My Earth.”

* * *

Cisco doesn’t know what’s better.

The way Harry almost collapses when he sees Jesse again for the first time, the way Jesse bursts into tears and clings to her dad like she’s afraid he’ll disappear, the monstrous hug that Caitlin gives him and refuses to end, the teary “we thought we lost you” speech from Joe, the warm embrace and cheek kiss from Iris, or seeing Barry alive again after he was so sure that he was dead, that Zoom really had killed him.

Actually, Cisco knows what the best part is.

It’s when Barry pulls him aside and bursts into tears and tells him everything that’s happened while he’s been gone-a week, he thought it was only a few days but it had been a _week-_ tells him every little detail that he missed, every last word.

It’s when Barry tells him that Cisco’s the real hero, not Barry, because he’s the one who took Zoom down. Cisco corrects him on that; somehow, he knows that Zoom is coming back, probably because of the man whose face he can see inside his mind, the one with his hair tied back and a leather jacket who shakes his head disapprovingly every five seconds. What he did to stop Zoom, whatever it was, was only temporary.

No, that isn’t actually the best part. The best part is what happens after, when they’re high on the hope of defeating Zoom, Barry leaning heavily on his cane and Cisco with his hair and eyes wild. Barry damn near crushes Cisco against the wall since his cane slips a little before he can stop it.

It’s still one of the best kisses Cisco’s ever had, and that’s how he knows they’re going to get through this.

Maybe this is one of those movies where two heroes fall in love instead.


End file.
